J.T. Lang

John Thomas "Jack" Lang (21 December 1876-27 September 1975) was Premier of New South Wales from 17 June 1925 to 18 October 1927 (succeeding George Fuller and preceding Thomas Bavin) and from 4 November 1930 to 13 May 1932 (succeeding Bavin and preceding Bertram Stevens). He was a member of the Australian Labor Party.

Biography
John Thomas Lang was born in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia in 1876, and he worked as a land agent and auctioneer before becoming secretary of his local branch of the Australian Labor Party in 1903 and a member of the New South Wales legislative assembly in 1913. Rising to prominence after the ALP split in 1916 over compulsory military service overseas, he served as treasurer from 1920 to 1922, 1925 to 1927, and from 1930 to 1932, as well as party leader in 1923. As premier of New South Wales, he introduced widows' pensions, increased workers' compensation, and re-established the 44-hour working week. At the same time, the aloof, pugnacious, and abrasive Lang remained a controversial figure, even within his own party. He lost the 1927 elections, but was back in power from 1930 to 1932, when he tried to respond to the Great Depression with the Lang Plan, which was to suspend interest payments of overseas loans in order to reduce public expenditure. This was contrary to the action of all other state premiers, and of the federal government, led by an ALP ministry under James Scullin. He thus split the Labor Party in New South Wales, where he managed to impose his own authority on the state party machine, until it was integrated into the federal ALP in 1936. He was expelled from the ALP in 1943 for his criticism of John Curtin, and in 1944 founded "Lang Labor". He was elected to the House of Representatives in 1946, but lost his seat in 1949.